The fire sale has started in St. Louis this winter as Sonny Gray was traded to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday. Many insiders and executives wondered if this would happen as the Cardinals appear to undergo a rebuild.
Gray was traded away for two prospects, Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke, both of whom are pitchers. However, this is likely to be the first of many moves the Cardinals make to shed payroll and ship out older players.
Buster Olney of ESPN believes now that Gray has been traded, the likelihood of third baseman Nolan Arenado and first baseman Willson Contreras could soon be shown the door as well.
“It seems inevitable that the Cardinals will either trade or release Nolan Arenado before the start of the ’26 season; if so, Willson Contreras will be the last St. Louis player with a contract for 2027. Unless he’s traded,” Olney wrote in a post on X.
Olney then added a reply to his own post.
“To put this into context: The Cardinals could have a lower payroll next year than the Reds. Which might’ve seemed impossible in past decades,” he wrote.
This should come to the surprise of very few baseball fans, if any, as Arenado has been the subject of trade rumors for quite some time. In fact, there was a lot of speculation as to whether he was going to even play last year with the Cardinals.
Contreras is the name that should come as a surprise as there has not been as much chatter around him as there was Arenado. If St. Louis was to trade him, it would need to find a team that is searching for a first baseman (cough cough New York Mets) or someone to serve as the designated hitter. His catching days are over as he didn’t appear behind the plate once this past season.
Expect both players to be the subject of rumors in the coming weeks as the winter meetings draw closer.
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